1. Field of the Invention
The invention is directed to a creel for a warping arrangement, provided with pegs for carrying thread spools which are circumferentially distributed upon a continuous carrier, said carrier being stopable in certain predetermined positions in which a portion of the said pegs are in a thread take-off position. There is further provided a discharge arrangement having a guide surface for the thread spools which discharges said thread spools from said pegs when the carrier is moved forwardly into the discharge position.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
In a known creel (Japan, Kokai, SHO 48-45649), there is provided a carrier formed by two chains which are connected to each other by means of transverse rods. The pegs project perpendicularly to these transverse rods. Each chain runs over two turning rollers, which are oriented vertically above each other. The pegs project straight out from the carrier. In this arrangement, the chains are set in motion when the thread has been run off from the spools. At predetermined intervals, the chains are halted so that a service person may remove the empty thread spools from the pegs and replace them with new thread spools without the need to mount a ladder to place the thread spools on pegs located in the upper reaches of the transport means. It is also provided in this arrangement that the empty thread spool cores drop down by force of gravity so that the pegs are cleared to enable a new thread spool to be placed thereon.
This known arrangement suffers from the disadvantage that the empty spool cores must be removed by hand. In particular, if the peg is slightly oriented downwardly, which can occur when the weight of the spool is high, protective measures must be taken to ensure that the thread spool is not pulled off from the peg by the force of the thread tension in combination with its own weight. This can be achieved by providing a certain measure of friction on the peg, or by providing a blocking means for the thread spool. However, such a blocking means or mechanism, for example a friction surface, interferes with the gravity discharge of the empty cores so that the service person is forced to removed the empty spools from the pegs before a new thread spool can be provided. This leads to a substantial consumption of service time.
A creel of the above described type provided with carrier pegs for the thread spools which are circumferentially distributed about a circulating carrier, wherein the carrier is haltable in certain predetermined positions is known. Such an arrangement, in which a portion of the pegs are in a thread take-off position and a discharge arrangement having guide surfaces for the thread spools is provided, which discharges the spools from the pegs when the carrier moves past the discharge arrangement, is disclosed in Patent DE PS 522 353. Such a discharge arrangement is provided by a plurality of surfaces having openings therebetween. In such an arrangement, the surfaces must be oriented exactly parallel to the direction of movement of the carrier, across their entire operating length. When two adjacent plates are not exactly oriented with respect to each other, the height of the discharge edge on both sides of the opening is uneven, which can lead to a disorientation of the spools on the pegs. Such disoriented spools can, under certain circumstances, not be removed from the pegs by the discharge arrangement but rather bend the discharge arrangement even further so that in the processing of the next set of spools, the spools which are mounted on pegs protruding through such adjacent openings, cannot be removed properly either.
Since however, it is necessary to provide all plates with spools, it is substantially impossible to maintain an exact mutual orientation of all the plates with respect to each other over a prolonged period of time. Thus, the service personnel not only need to charge the spools on the pegs, but must also pay close attention to the discharge of the spools in order to make the proper adjustments, that is to say, remove disoriented spools from the appropriate pegs.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,460,689 describes a moveable creel cart for a warping creel which is moveable against the discharge arrangement. In this discharge arrangement, discharge surfaces are provided which grip behind the empty spools and force them off the pegs. The discharged spools can thus be removed into an appropriate container by means of a transport band.